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Windows invites anyone sitting at the keyboard to make a wild guess when file associations are messed up.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Dr. Gizmo: Getting Windows to fix a file-association problem


Nov. 14, 2001


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Post Standard

   I tried to open a PowerPoint file and selected MGI PhotoSuite by mistake. Now every PowerPoint file I receive is automatically identified as a PhotoSuite file, with a PhotoSuite icon. How do I change this? I have Office 2000 installed on my Windows computer. -- J.M., via Juno
   Windows displays an annoying tendency to lose track of which programs it should use to open various files. It allows any program to change what are called the "file associations" of other programs -- a whacko lapse in software design if the doctor ever saw one. Worse yet, it invites anyone sitting at the keyboard to make a wild guess when these associations are messed up.
   The doc has wrestled with this problem ever since Windows 95 was introduced in six years ago. He's tried many utility programs that check on and fix file associations, but he's learned how to deal with them without fuss and without extra software help.
   Here are the most important rules for dealing with file associations:
   1. If you are not sure what you are doing, never click the checkbox labeled "Always use this program to open these files" when Windows asks you which program it should use.
   Grandparents, teachers and babysitters will appreciate the next trick:
   2. When you realize that you're a total nutso (meaning you paid no attention at all to Rule No. 1), do this: Find the file with the messed-up association in a folder window or on your desktop and click it once to highlight it. Hold down the Shift key and click the right mouse button (or the "alternate" button if you've switched yours). You'll see the Windows file-association box.
   A lot of icons will show up in that box, along with the names of the programs represented by those icons. Look for the program that's supposed to open the file. It definitely should be there. (If it's not, you can search for it using the "Browse" button. But unless someone sillier than the doc has been messing with your Windows PC, the program you are looking for will be in that list.)
   Don't check the "Always use this program to open these files" box. DON'T. The doctor knows that you're probably as hard of hearing as he is, so he'll shout again: DO NOT CHECK THAT BOX. That's where the problems come from. Choose the right program and click OK.
   Then double click on the file in question. If it opens the way it's supposed to, go through the entire procedure again, this time checking the "Always use this program to open these files" box.
   
   Dr. Gizmo associates his own files on Al Fasoldt's Windows PC. You can send a file association or just a note to the doc or his pal at Technology, Box 4915, Syracuse, NY 13221. Or send e-mail to afasoldt@twcny.rr.com.